Surah Yusuf, Ayah 34

The News reaches Women in the City, Who also plot against Yusuf

Allah states that the news of what happened between the wife of the `Aziz and Yusuf spread in the city, that is, Egypt, and people talked about it,

وَقَالَ نِسْوَةٌ فِى الْمَدِينَةِ

(And women in the city said...), such as women of chiefs and princes said, while admonishing and criticizing the wife of the `Aziz,

امْرَأَتُ الْعَزِيزِ تُرَاوِدُ فَتَـهَا عَن نَّفْسِهِ

(The wife of the `Aziz is seeking to seduce her (slave) young man,), she is luring her servant to have sex with her,

قَدْ شَغَفَهَا حُبًّا

(indeed she loves him violently;), her love for him filled her heart and engulfed it,

إِنَّا لَنَرَاهَا فِى ضَلَـلٍ مُّبِينٍ

After that, said in verse 34 was:

فَاسْتَجَابَ لَهُ رَ‌بُّهُ فَصَرَ‌فَ عَنْهُ كَيْدَهُنَّ ۚ إِنَّهُ هُوَ السَّمِيعُ الْعَلِيمُ

So, his Lord accepted his prayer and turned their guile away from him. Surely, He is the All-Hearing, the All-Knowing.

To protect him from the guile of these women, Allah Ta ala made his own wise arrangements. Though the ` Aziz of Misr and his inner circle was already convinced of the great spiritual qualities of Sayyidna Yusuf (علیہ السلام) his piety, fear of Allah and chastity, but rumours of the incident had started circulating in the city. To put a check on this, they found it expedient to confine Sayyidna Yusuf (علیہ السلام) into the prison for a certain period of time so that there remains no source of any doubt in the concerned family, and that the talk of the town too dies out in due course.

Certain ladies of noble families were invited by Zulaykha to meet Joseph and they saw in him a handsome young man. Joseph also could have seen these ladies as a means of satisfying the desires of his lower self. But even in the most exciting of circumstances, he did not see them as such. The ladies were all so thrilled by his extremely charming personality, that, in their extreme state of absorption, they injured their hands with knives while cutting fruit. But Joseph’s whole attention was directed towards God. God’s greatness and Majesty so dominated his senses that nothing could divert his attention. What a difference there is between one human being and another.